We're in Japan!

This is a picture of us right after our plane rides (Do we look tired enough?).

I was going to write this blog last night (at least our last night) and then again this morning, but I ran into a couple of problems with that. First we were exhausted. We flew in around 5:00 in the afternoon here (that was midnight back home). By the time we got to our motel room it was around 9:00 pm, so by the time we went to sleep it was around 4:30 a.m. our time. I was okay, but Tom was a walking zombie (it's not uncommon for me to stay up pretty late). 2nd our laptop has a power cord that wasn't adaptable to the outlets in the walls here. They don't have 3-pronged outlets. Tom bought an adapter at the navy commissary today while he was at work. 3rd I was having a little problem with the language in google. It automatically changed to Japanese. Needless to say, I don't know how to read Japanese. It would bring up English when I searched, but all the screen links were in Japanese. It took me a little while to figure it out. So here we are!

The plane rides went well. The only problem I had was actually getting off the ground. My plane was suppose to leave around 1:00. First it was delayed by about an hour and then when we were a actually taxiing down the runway we had to turn around and go back because someone put a bag on the plane that wasn't suppose to be there. Tom and I were on different flights because it saved us about $600. My flight was suppose to get to Tokyo about 10 minutes before his. I was a little concerned, but it turned out fine. We only got there about 30 minutes later than we were scheduled to and after I went through immigration and got my bag he was there waiting for me. The flight was about 10 hours long and we had 2 meals and a couple of snacks. I don't eat that well at home! The food was pretty good too. Plus I could watch movies the whole trip. I rode with Delta and they have this cool On-Demand like setup. Everyone has their own TV and you just go in and select the movie you want. I watched 4 different movies. It was actually pretty enjoyable. Along with my puzzle book, the time flew pretty fast. So much better than my trip to the Philippines!

The shipyard had a bus and escorts waiting for us at the airport with a bus. We all just climbed into the bus and were driven to our respective cities. There were two different cities that people stayed at. I think we lucked out we ended up in a pretty nice hotel in a town called Yukosuka (pronounced Yukoska) within a 10 minute walk to the naval base where Tom will be working. The other place was an hour train ride away. The bus ride took us a couple of hours from the airport to the base. We passed through about 10 toll booths along the way. I heard someone say that if we drove by ourselves the tolls would cost around $150. Insane! For the entire ride, all we could see were buildings everywhere. We were passing through different cities, but there wasn't a break between them. One huge freakin' town. Although the type of building changed a little the further we got from Tokyo. In Tokyo the buildings were mostly high rises and they changed to pretty normal city building as were were driving.

Our motel room has 2 twin beds instead of a queen. I'm not sure what they accomplish by doing that, but oh well. So, not cuddling for me unless we want to revert to our pre-marriage cuddling on our twin beds (yes that's as far as it went). Our room also has a couch, a desk, TV, small refrigerator, & microwave. We're happy about the fridge. A benefit of the Navy's relationship with the Mercure Hotel is Tom gets all his laundry done for free, plus a free breakfast buffet every morning, and a free drink every day. However, I do not get these benefits. So, we've got to figure out how we're going to get my laundry done. Another benefit is Tom gets a daily allowance for his food. If he doesn't use it all we just get to keep the extra. If we're careful we should have enough money to pay for both our food and have some extra left over.

Tomorrow is Tom's first real day at work. He had a training class this morning, and is currently taking a nap. Jet lag. Lucky for me there is a mall across the street from our motel and many little shops around. We also brough many movies and the laptop. So I should have plenty to keep me occupied while he's working!

This is a picture from our motel room window (I'm such a skilled photographer you can see me in the reflection)!